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Sure. But are any of those businesses really doing well these days? For the longest time facebook told businesses that advertised heavily on their platform that

Sure. But are any of those businesses really doing well these days? For the longest time facebook told businesses that advertised heavily on their platform that they had no intention of getting deep into verticals, that instead those businesses should build on top of the facebook "infrastructure". And for a while it was relatively true; now all the gloves are off. If you're growing and profitable, and working with consumers, facebook will be coming for you.

ggg9990 8y ago
I know a bunch of independent sellers of various things who say that they are getting more sales from Facebook Marketplace than Craigslist
- redial 8y ago
  Not Craigslist tho.
- notyourwork 8y ago
  With my recent move this was my experience. Everything listed on Craigslist and Facebook, every single sale was Facebook.
  - magduf 8y ago
    I'm in the process of a move/downsizing, near the DC area, and my experience is exactly the opposite. All the locals on Facebook waste my time with Messenger, and never follow through, whereas people on Craigslist actually show up with cash. I joined 10 local "yard sale" groups on FB plus Marketplace, posting everything in all of them plus CL, and all the sales are coming from CL. Facebook just seems to be full of flaky losers.
    - notyourwork 8y ago
      Interesting - I wonder if it varies by region. A few years back I had mixed luck with both in Seattle, my recent experience is in Bay area. I do agree on Facebook there is more noise than I found on craigslist. I think this is because of the UX, Facebook makes it easy to send a false positive for interest whereas on craigslist it takes more effort and therefore reduces the signal to noise ratio for buyers who are actually interested.
      - magduf 8y ago
        I think that's quite possible. On FB, I've gotten a lot of "lookey loos" popping up and asking me questions on Messenger, usually "is this still available?". So I answer them and half the time never hear from them again. With CL, they have to punch in a phone number, or use email to ask inane questions like that (which they do, just not as much).
- duderific 8y ago
  My wife has moved entirely to FB Marketplace for buying/selling, because you can get a much better sense if the person you are transacting with is sketchy or not. This is a huge upside that FB can leverage.
  - mistermann 8y ago
    The fact that FB has real identities, with history and a measurable "trustworthy" index, gives it a huge advantage that almost no one else has. imho this has always been the ace up FB's sleeve in terms of monetization and justifying their market cap.
adventured 8y ago
Yes, Craigslist is doing really well. "Craigslist will generate revenue of almost $700 million this year [full year 2016], with a profit margin around 80 percent — making it the most profitable classified advertising site in the world, the AIM Group reports in its Global Classified Advertising Annual." "it managed to increase revenue by 75 percent in 2016 over the estimated 2015 total" https://aimgroup.com/2016/11/29/craigslist-revenue-soars-again/ https://aimgroup.com/2016/11/29/craigslist-revenue-soars-aga... Story from May 2017 talking about how well they're doing: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2017/05/03/how-does-craigslist-make-money/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2017/05/03/how-does-cra... The AIM Group's long term chart on Craiglist's estimated revenue, year by year: https://i.imgur.com/cAwd2T3.jpg https://i.imgur.com/cAwd2T3.jpg Obviously we'll see how Craigslist fairs over a longer period of time vs Facebook market. However, Craigslist is a free listing service for the typical user, as such Facebook is a modest threat - people can trivially list on both services.
- robhunter 8y ago
  Vast majority of that revenue is from job postings
NamTaf 8y ago
A mate of mine here in Australia recently moved apartment and wanted to flip a whole heap of her stuff (bed frame, lounges, etc.) to downsize. She was using gumtree (the traditional 'I need to sell a lounge/fridge/etc. site used here) but was getting pretty poor responses. She then tried FB Marketplace and found it to be a huge gain in both quantity of responses (~10x) and their quality (people weren't offering her like 20% of what she listed it at). I also see many uni kids flipping their textbooks and other small belongings on it, because it's really easy and right there in the app everyone looks at all the time. It also targets location, so uni kids living on campus sell directly to other uni kids living on campus and so exchanges become trivially easy. It may not have disrupted the US market, but it's certainly had an impact elsewhere.
- alsetmusic 8y ago
  > She then tried FB Marketplace and found it to be a huge gain in both quantity of responses (~10x) and their quality (people weren't offering her like 20% of what she listed it at). I offload items I don’t want anymore via Craigslist in the US. I try to give away or sell items at a low cost to reduce the hassle and time that I have to invest (a great deal is less likely to turn into a person who cancels at the last minute after I’ve set aside time to meet). For items with a cost, the majority of emails are insulting low bids. Glad to know this isn’t a local / regional issue.
- magduf 8y ago
  Interesting. I've heard about FB Marketplace and the other local selling groups, so because I'm moving out and downsizing too, I decided to try it in addition to Craigslist. I've sold a bunch of stuff so far, and while I've listed almost everything on both (on the FB side, I've used Marketplace and also about 10 different local "yard sale" groups that cover my location), as far as I can tell all my sales came from Craigslist. On the FB side, I've had a bunch of communications from totally flaky people who never follow through. The only good thing I can say about FB so far is that I haven't run into any scammers there, whereas they're common on CL, but they're easy to avoid: only deal in cash with people who show up in person, and ignore people who want to send cashier's checks and that kind of crap.

ggg9990 8y ago

I know a bunch of independent sellers of various things who say that they are getting more sales from Facebook Marketplace than Craigslist

redial 8y ago
Not Craigslist tho.
notyourwork 8y ago
With my recent move this was my experience. Everything listed on Craigslist and Facebook, every single sale was Facebook.
- magduf 8y ago
  I'm in the process of a move/downsizing, near the DC area, and my experience is exactly the opposite. All the locals on Facebook waste my time with Messenger, and never follow through, whereas people on Craigslist actually show up with cash. I joined 10 local "yard sale" groups on FB plus Marketplace, posting everything in all of them plus CL, and all the sales are coming from CL. Facebook just seems to be full of flaky losers.
  - notyourwork 8y ago
    Interesting - I wonder if it varies by region. A few years back I had mixed luck with both in Seattle, my recent experience is in Bay area. I do agree on Facebook there is more noise than I found on craigslist. I think this is because of the UX, Facebook makes it easy to send a false positive for interest whereas on craigslist it takes more effort and therefore reduces the signal to noise ratio for buyers who are actually interested.
    - magduf 8y ago
      I think that's quite possible. On FB, I've gotten a lot of "lookey loos" popping up and asking me questions on Messenger, usually "is this still available?". So I answer them and half the time never hear from them again. With CL, they have to punch in a phone number, or use email to ask inane questions like that (which they do, just not as much).
duderific 8y ago
My wife has moved entirely to FB Marketplace for buying/selling, because you can get a much better sense if the person you are transacting with is sketchy or not. This is a huge upside that FB can leverage.
- mistermann 8y ago
  The fact that FB has real identities, with history and a measurable "trustworthy" index, gives it a huge advantage that almost no one else has. imho this has always been the ace up FB's sleeve in terms of monetization and justifying their market cap.

adventured 8y ago

Yes, Craigslist is doing really well. "Craigslist will generate revenue of almost $700 million this year [full year 2016], with a profit margin around 80 percent — making it the most profitable classified advertising site in the world, the AIM Group reports in its Global Classified Advertising Annual." "it managed to increase revenue by 75 percent in 2016 over the estimated 2015 total" https://aimgroup.com/2016/11/29/craigslist-revenue-soars-again/ https://aimgroup.com/2016/11/29/craigslist-revenue-soars-aga... Story from May 2017 talking about how well they're doing: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2017/05/03/how-does-craigslist-make-money/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2017/05/03/how-does-cra... The AIM Group's long term chart on Craiglist's estimated revenue, year by year: https://i.imgur.com/cAwd2T3.jpg https://i.imgur.com/cAwd2T3.jpg Obviously we'll see how Craigslist fairs over a longer period of time vs Facebook market. However, Craigslist is a free listing service for the typical user, as such Facebook is a modest threat - people can trivially list on both services.

robhunter 8y ago
Vast majority of that revenue is from job postings

NamTaf 8y ago

A mate of mine here in Australia recently moved apartment and wanted to flip a whole heap of her stuff (bed frame, lounges, etc.) to downsize. She was using gumtree (the traditional 'I need to sell a lounge/fridge/etc. site used here) but was getting pretty poor responses. She then tried FB Marketplace and found it to be a huge gain in both quantity of responses (~10x) and their quality (people weren't offering her like 20% of what she listed it at). I also see many uni kids flipping their textbooks and other small belongings on it, because it's really easy and right there in the app everyone looks at all the time. It also targets location, so uni kids living on campus sell directly to other uni kids living on campus and so exchanges become trivially easy. It may not have disrupted the US market, but it's certainly had an impact elsewhere.

alsetmusic 8y ago
> She then tried FB Marketplace and found it to be a huge gain in both quantity of responses (~10x) and their quality (people weren't offering her like 20% of what she listed it at). I offload items I don’t want anymore via Craigslist in the US. I try to give away or sell items at a low cost to reduce the hassle and time that I have to invest (a great deal is less likely to turn into a person who cancels at the last minute after I’ve set aside time to meet). For items with a cost, the majority of emails are insulting low bids. Glad to know this isn’t a local / regional issue.
magduf 8y ago
Interesting. I've heard about FB Marketplace and the other local selling groups, so because I'm moving out and downsizing too, I decided to try it in addition to Craigslist. I've sold a bunch of stuff so far, and while I've listed almost everything on both (on the FB side, I've used Marketplace and also about 10 different local "yard sale" groups that cover my location), as far as I can tell all my sales came from Craigslist. On the FB side, I've had a bunch of communications from totally flaky people who never follow through. The only good thing I can say about FB so far is that I haven't run into any scammers there, whereas they're common on CL, but they're easy to avoid: only deal in cash with people who show up in person, and ignore people who want to send cashier's checks and that kind of crap.